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Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says it would be âsillyâ to think Red Bull and Racing Bulls could use co-ordinated on-track tactics that breach the sporting regulations. Mekies said: "It doesn't matter if they are co-owned or if they have the same PU or if they have the same gearbox or the same suspensions; we need to all race independently. So, certainly, we will be more than silly, knowing all the attention in the world that there is on this topic, to be thinking to have a treatment that would not be compatible with the sporting regulations."
George Russell says his relationship with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has grown closer through the teamâs highs and lows. Russell said: "It's been 12 years now that we've known one another. We've become so close, especially the most recent years. We've been through the highs and the lows, starting in the years when I was at Williams, trying to get into Mercedes, then four years of relative failure for us, not fighting for a championship. To arrive in Melbourne, to get the 1-2 with Kimi, it was like, 'We're back'. It makes me really proud."
Alex Albon says Williams is âa good chunkâ off its midfield rivals in high-speed performance and expects the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring to be a tough test for the team. Albon said: "If you look at our high speed compared to our midfield rivals, we're a good chunk off. So obviously, the Red Bull Ring, sector two and sector three is all high speed, so we need to see what we do. But we can't forget, Carlos qualified a second and a half off [Liam] Lawson, so we've got some work to do."
Carlos Sainz says Max Verstappen has it written into his Red Bull contract that he does not have to do marketing or interviews, as he argued todayâs Formula 1 drivers would not have time to commit to an annual karting event. Sainz said: "I think that in a 24-race championship, with all the marketing and interviews we do, that's impossible. No driver could manage it. Well⌠Max would be the only one, because he's the only one who doesn't do marketing or interviews â he has it written into his contracts, he can afford to do so, and Red Bull accepts it."
Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack says the team being off the pace at both Monaco and the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix shows the AMR26 needs work âin all areasâ, despite the circuits having very different characteristics. Krack said: "The track character cannot be more different here to Monaco. You have a lot of high-speed corners and a lot of medium-speed corners. Very few low-speed corners. In Monaco, it is the opposite. But the fact that we are behind on both circuits, shows you that it is all areas that we have to work on."
George Russell says his overtake on Valtteri Bottas on his Mercedes debut at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix was âkeyâ to his future with the team. Russell said: "I think this overtake was key for my future with Mercedes. Even though it wasn't built up to be a head-to-head of Valtteri versus myself, everybody knew that I was gunning to try and take over his seat. When I saw the opportunity to make the pass on him around the outside, I took it. It felt awesome at the time."
Lewis Hamilton says he âunplugged from the matrixâ and rebuilt his mindset after online criticism affected him during a difficult 2025 season, as he reflected on his first Ferrari win at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Hamilton said: "Well, I mean, I'm only human. So there are moments where I see the stuff, and for sure there are moments where I allowed it to get to me and penetrate deeply. But then I went through a sequence of unplugging from that matrix. I spent lots of time with family, lots of time with friends, real people that know me, that have never doubted me, have stuck to and by me my whole life."
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies said the team has âself-imposedâ stricter limits on personnel transfers between Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls after McLaren chief executive Zak Brown raised concerns with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Mekies said: "There is an extremely precise and detailed regulations about transfer of personnel and minimum time of gardening leave between a team and another team, not only do we respect, obviously, the FIA regulations, but we have also imposed on ourselves a higher time to make sure we won't fall into this sort of discussion."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the team has been put on the back foot in the 2026 season because it is a Mercedes power-unit customer rather than a works outfit. Stella said: "I've said before, like never before, we felt that being a customer team has put us on the backfoot. When I say this, and I want to be clear here, to avoid any misunderstanding, it's not because you are a lower priority for Mercedes HPP, it's because you have fewer opportunities to integrate, to stay on the same timeline when it comes to addressing reliability problems or exploitation of the power unit from a performance point of view."
Carlos Sainz says Williams need to âgo back to the drawing boardâ after being surprised by how far off the FW48 was in medium and high-speed corners at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Sainz said: "Looking back at it, I think it was a bit of a shock how far [off] we are in medium and high-speed corners. Partly, it's due to weight, but even more importantly, it's downforce in the car. I think it's time to go back to the drawing board and start bringing more things to the car, because clearly, on a medium-speed track, we are very far off."
Esteban Ocon says Haas team-mate Ollie Bearman is the Formula 1 team-mate he gets on with best, as the pair continue their second season together at the team after Oconâs move from Alpine in 2025. Ocon said: "Yeah, I think it's awesome to be teaming up with him. He's probably the teammate I get along the best with. He's a very fun character off the track, which is very nice, and very dedicated to the professional aspect of what we need to do when we are inside the engineering office. He's very fast, of course, but it's good that we can push each other."
Former Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams says George Russell âdeserves a titleâ but needs his bad luck to stop, with the Mercedes driverâs 2026 season disrupted by setbacks as Kimi Antonelli has won five of the opening seven grands prix. Williams said: "I really don't want it to stick on George because he deserves a title. I think he deserves it. He's earned one."
Former Red Bull driver David Coulthard said there has been no official move to force Red Bull to give up ownership of Racing Bulls, and argued the company has helped turn the former Minardi outfit into a regular points scorer, after McLaren CEO Zak Brown called for multi-team ownership to be phased out. Coulthard said: "But I don't believe there's been an official directive on it, and nothing has been announced. So, from a Red Bull point of view, they have, for a long time, owned two Formula 1 teams and a Formula 1 circuit. If you look at that, they've helped what was a small midfield team become a viable top-10 team. They were never that when Red Bull bought into them."
Sergio Perez says Cadillac will bring a âbig packageâ of upgrades for the Austrian Grand Prix as it targets a move into the midfield. Perez said: "It's good information for the team. We just have to make sure that we are able to come out on top, and we are bringing a big package for Austria. I hope that will bring us into the midfield group."
Charles Leclerc says he needs a âresetâ and to âput everything togetherâ in Austria after what he described as a poor run of form for Ferrari, including a crash in Monaco and a power steering failure at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc said: "It was a bit better, and the weekend has been better generally, but with what happened, I just need to reset and come back in Austria and put everything together. I've lost significant points on my side, though. So I've got to do a pretty exceptional job from the next race until the end, with the upgrades coming from our side, and we will see."
Footage circulating on social media appears to show Formula 3 points leader Ugo Ugochukwu crashing an Alpine A525 during a private test at Monza, spinning at the Ascari chicane before hitting the tyre barrier. PlanetF1.com reports it was Ugochukwuâs first time driving a Formula 1 car and describes the incident as seemingly low-impact, with the gravel and barrier limiting the damage. As the run was a private TPC test, Alpine did not comment when approached.
One of Ayrton Sennaâs personally used Honda NSX road cars is set to go under the hammer at RM Sothebyâs London auction at the Peninsula London in October 2026, with bids estimated to reach up to ÂŁ800,000. The red NSX with a black roof (chassis T000233) was supplied by Honda for Sennaâs use in 1991 and comes with paperwork supporting its provenance, plus Portuguese ownership history documentation.
Audi team boss Mattia Binotto says the FIAâs additional power unit development allowance under ADUO will âbenefit significantlyâ the manufacturer, but he does not expect an immediate step in performance. Binotto said: "For Audi it will be a significant benefit. I think it's what we were expecting. Since the very start of the season, we knew that most of our gap to the top teams was on the power unit side. Not a surprise to us. Hard work will be required. We've got plans, but it will be beneficial, but not in the short term."
Oliver Bearman admits he approached the start of his Formula 1 rookie season at Haas with the âwrong mindsetâ after a difficult Australian Grand Prix weekend that included multiple on-track errors. Bearman said: "That weekend in general was a very tough one. I probably entered the weekend with the wrong mindset. On top of that, we had a car which was not the most compliant. It was a really bad start."
Aston Martin chief trackside engineer Mike Krack says the team need to improve âeverythingâ after a difficult start to the 2026 season that has included a lack of pace and reliability problems. Krack said: "I think it's everything. Yeah, I think we need to improve. If it was only one thing, it would be quite easy... But the fact that we are behind on both circuits shows you that I think it's all areas that we have to, have to work on."
Toto Wolff says Formula 1 should avoid putting a âfull handbrakeâ on customer-team arrangements in response to Zak Brownâs concerns about dual ownership, and instead make the rules on collaboration clearer. Toto Wolff said: "Because where do you stop? If we say, 'OK, full handbrake... we want to have 11 constructors,' that means everybody brings their own engine, everybody brings their own gearboxes, rear ends, etcetera. That would be obviously nirvana, but how should a relatively small team like Haas do that today? It's not possible. So, I think we need to allow space for all of the positions in that... the only right outcome and objective needs to be rules that make it even clearer what's on and what is not on."
Cadillac team boss Graeme Lowdon says the teamâs solid start to its debut Formula 1 season is a âdouble-edged swordâ because expectations can quickly get out of control as the car improves. Lowdon said: "We've really pushed to start as we mean to go on, and we've had pretty much something at every race. If you make a step forward, it raises everyone's expectations, but that comes with the territory, and you've got to embrace it. But you can get into that territory where the expectations are just too high."
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